Keeper
by junebug18
Summary: In the strange life Veronica has you can never know what to expect from one day to another. If I say anything else it'll give it away, but Veronica does have a few major life changing events in the story. I swear it's better than the summary.
1. Just life

_Disclaimer- I don't own the show or anything else having to do with Veronica Mars so don't try to sue me._

_Spoilers up to season three and to whatever episode it was when Logan found out he had a brother._

"I just…I just don't know who to talk to. Nobody I know has had something like this happen to them. Everyone says they understand, but I know they don't…they can't. I wouldn't have been able to before." She continued to sob through her hands which she held her face in. Veronica looked at the most recent shaven head rape victim. A twinge of strange guilt passed through her. She had just gotten done with yet another incredibly boring shift in the school library and was sitting on a beach in the hallway of one of the college buildings waiting for Logan to pick her up when she had recognized the girl.

Veronica sighed. She really didn't want to have to do what she knew she should. But the girl looked so miserable and she could remember all too well what she had felt and gone through…alone. "Ok, do you think it'd make you feel better if you sat down and talked which someone else who has been raped?"

The girl looked up at Veronica from her hands and nodded. "I guess, but I don't know anyone." Veronica placed a hand at the girl's forearm, gesturing for her to sit. She sat down with her. The girl looked confused.

Veronica kept her gaze at the floor. "Three years ago I was."

The girl's head snapped up in shock. "What? But-"

"Yeah, you'd be surprised. I don't exactly advertise it. In fact I didn't tell anyone…except the sheriff who pretty much laughed at me."

"Wow, I-I didn't-"

Veronica couldn't seem to get comfortable, she felt very uneasy and wanted very much to just quickly get up and walk away from the conversation, but she felt it her duty to calm the poor girl. "So what do you want to know?"

"Um, I don't know. Did you ever figure out who did it?"

"Yeah, two years after the fact. Then he tried to shoot me and blow up a plane he thought my dad was in, and then he killed himself."

The girl seemed almost stunned. "Wow, maybe I did get off easy with the shaved head."

"Well, I don't know. But listen, make sure you get yourself tested for things." She put her gaze again at the floor. "That's important."

The girl looked at her as if somehow knowing what she meant. "Other than that," Veronica concluded "it's just gonna really suck for a while, and then…then it'll still suck, but you'll get used to it. And when we figure out who did this, you'll feel a little better."

Veronica looked up just in time to see Logan walking into the hall and grinning at her. She turned back to the girl. "If you need anything, or have questions, or just wanna rant call me." The blond stood up and walked over to Logan, who was waiting for her at the door. He put his arm around her shoulder and they left.

For whatever reason lately, though probably having something to do with Logan's apparent brother who seemed to refuse contact with him, or the recent string of rapes going on around campus that brought back painful memories for Veronica, they had both been feeling somewhat insecure and even kind of needy lately. Luckily for both, the one place they knew that they could always find comfort seemed to be with each other. After grabbing some take out, that night they ended up at Logan's. They ate and discussed the latest news and insiders that Veronica had found out about the rapes and a forth, yet still unanswered phone call Logan attempted at his brother, then ended up cuddling on the couch. She stayed over in his apartment that night. She called her dad who, as always, chose not to think about what would probably be going on involving his only little girl. In his opinion, it was just better that way.

At about four o'clock in the morning, Veronica awoke from a nightmare flashback of almost being burned to death in a freezer by Logan's father, a nightmare that was quite common for her, to find herself staring at a dark skinned man pressed up against the window taking a picture of them. She jumped up…a mistake since she didn't have any clothes on, and then quickly covered herself with the sheet. Logan finally stirred, and then when his outreached hand came back empty, opened his eyes to see Veronica sitting up staring at the window.

"What's wrong?"  
"Someone's taking pictures of us from the window." She said in a careful whisper. Logan jumped up and turned around to face the man. When he saw him, he spared no time in jumping into his pants, getting to window, opening it, and almost grabbing the man before he even put his camera down. He got away just in time. Logan was furious and began to leave the apartment to chase the man but Veronica stopped him.

"Don't Logan, he'll already be gone before you can even get outside."

"I hate those people. Paparazzi. You'd think they'd leave me alone after my dad kicked." He got back into bed with her. She put her head on his shoulder from behind and hugged onto him.

"You sure he was a paparazzi?"

"Yeah, what else would he be?"

Veronica chose not to answer just then, but it worried her. She again stared out the now empty window. It was pitch black outside. She laid back down.

Logan remained sitting up. "Well, since we're both up, we might as well take advantage of the situation." He smiled and laid down on top of her. She kissed him.

The next day was not a particularly good one for her. She had been feeling off all morning and had was very worried. She had called Logan once already to talk to him about it but all she got was the inspirational message on his voice mail. On the steps outside her class she had tripped over herself somehow and nearly fell on her face. That was the good part. The bad part was that Dick Casablancas had happened to be the one to catch her. She quickly straightened herself and scurried away from him.

"Hey Ronnie." She nodded his head back and forth annoyingly as he said it and drew the name out like a true surfer idiot.

"Hey." She quickly walked away before he had a chance to strike up a conversation. She needed to put some papers she had just gotten back from a professor in her car when she heard her phone ring. Logan. Good, there was something she needed to talk to him about anyways.

"Hey, Logan."

"Hi sugar bunch." He was teasing her.

"Sorry I'm just getting back to you, Dick needed some cheering up and I actually decided to go to my classes today.

"Does that mean I should be on the look out for an invasion of flying pigs?"

"Ha ha. You said there was something you needed to talk to me about?"

"Yeah…but I'd rather talk to you about it in person. Meet me tonight?"

"Sure, you should come sleep over at my place. Then we'll uh, have all night to…talk."

"Uh huh. Why, if I didn't know you to be the completely innocent old fashioned gentlemanly boy you are, I might think that you were insinuating something."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you mean, Miss Mars. You must have a dirty mind or something."

"Ok, but seriously, Logan, we do need to talk tonight about something."

"Ok then, I'll see you tonight peach balm."

"Bye."

She had just reached her car when she felt something hard hit her head. Everything went black.


	2. everyone who had a motive

Logan looked at his watch. It was ten thirty. It wasn't like Veronica to be running this late and not call or atleast answer her phone he began to worry. Veronica didn't show up later on that night either. Finally, he decided to call her friend Mac, who apparently hadn't seen her all day. _Thanks for absolutely no help. _He tried Wallace. He, on the other hand, was some help. He had seen her right before she went to class and was supposed to help him out with a paper afterward but she knew showed up and, he too, just kept getting her voicemail when he tried calling her. In Logan's mind all of the terrible possibilities started to play themselves out. He worried, so many people hated Veronica for one reason or another, usually pertaining to her investigative work, that it was very easy to picture someone trying to hurt her. What should he do?

The next thing Veronica knew she was being roughly carried down a flight of stairs by someone she didn't recognize. She had woke up once while she was in a car, but someone hit her and she fell out again. But not before taking note of her surroundings. She felt the man quite roughly drop her on the hard floor and kick her once with his metal toed boots hard enough to make her bleed before jerking off the blindfold. He never said one word to her, just grinned and left her laying on a the cold concrete floor of a basement. _Ok, Veronica, you need to pull yourself together and figure out how to get out of this. _She tried to stand up but the pain at her side was too much and she fell back down to the floor. Frustrated, she looked around from where she sat. It was a medium sized basement with concrete walls and floors and had nothing in it at all except her and the blood she'd spilled on the floor. There were no doors or windows except the door her attacker had come from. The only thing she saw at all really was the large air vent toward the top of the wall behind her. As far as she could think, there was no way to get up to the vent or un screw it if she did, and even if she could crawl through it, she had no guaranty it would get her out before they came back and saw she was gone. It was freezing down there. She put her hands into the pocket of her sweatshirt and, to her surprise, felt the wire paperclip from earlier, when they had jerked the report papers she had been taking to her car earlier from her, the clip must have fallen off. She tried to stand up this time and finally succeeded, although the pain was breath taking.

She finally found a loose step and pulled it up, propping up vertically against the wall and somehow, after hours of trying she managed to somehow get on top of the end and balance on it against the wall, using the paperclip to slowly and painfully unscrew the vent and then tried to climb through only to fall down, hurting herself more several times and cutting her hand on the sharp edge that she had to pull herself up on before finally getting into it. _I better make this fast, as soon as they come back it won't take them a second to know how I got out. _Trying not to make much noise, she crawled through the vent until it stopped in front of her and went straight up for a good ten feet. She leaned her back up one side and tried to push up with her feet using the other. It barely worked. After another twenty minutes of crawling and maneuvering, she finally came to a vent that must have been over the laundry room. She dropped down carefully from it unto a drier and crawled inside it when she heard footsteps nearby. They didn't come in the room and, when they went away, she came back out and tried the only small window that led to a yard. It was painted shut. She went to the door and listened for a few minutes and heard nothing so she opened it just barely very slowly. No one was in the room, but there was a cell phone laying on a chair close by, she tiptoed to it grabbed it and tiptoed back to the laundry room, closing and locking the door behind her. She text messaged her dad. _dad, trace this call, hurry!!!! Somewhere near beach on Tolso street. Red Cherokee. _

Two men walked toward the room she was hiding in. She could hear their heavy steps and conversation and decided to replace the vent and hide under the huge pile of laundry inside the basket just incase they should come inside while listening to what they were saying. Being petite had its advantages.

"I don't know. It would have been easier to just waste her myself instead of having to kidnap her, but the boss wanted to personally do it."

"He must really have something against her. When's he coming?"

"He's gonna call tonight to tell me when and where. You know, I almost felt bad for the girl."

"Yeah, tiny thing…and pretty. You think he'd mind if I uh.."

"As much as he wants her dead, nawh. Go ahead."

The second man walked loudly away. _He'll see that I'm gone any minute…_ She listened for footsteps. Nothing. She had no idea where the first man was. She waited another minute and then, knowing that at any second that man would find her missing and ransack every room to find her, she decided to run. Not a good move. The man was still in the room beside where she had been hiding quietly sitting on a couch reading. He looked up and saw her just as she started to run and the other man yelled that she was gone from the basement.

She ran outside with her attacker just a step behind her, she saw Logan's truck pull up at the end of the driveway just as she was tackled down to the concrete. Logan ran to them and pulled him off her just as the cops showed up and pulled their guns on him. He ran through the yard and they all ran after him. Logan stared at Veronica in shocked silence at what a mess she was in. She clung to him as if she was drowning and he was a floatie. But he didn't waste any time in getting her to his truck and sitting her in the front seat when the door opened as her dad pulled up. They both stood near the open door, frantically asking if she were ok.

The other cops that arrived insisted that she be taken to the hospital despite her protestations. She didn't have anything major wrong with her, just a bunch of cuts and bruises, one which required several stitches though. They let her go home after staying one night. Both her dad and Logan slept on the uncomfortable chairs in the room the night she was there. They were both afraid of whoever hired the guy that kidnapped her. As much as both of them loved Veronica, she did have a way of making enemies and if they were gonna have to sit down and make a list of everyone who had a motive to kill her it would take hours just to get half the names written down. Who were they gonna be able to keep her safe?


	3. this is getting ridiculous

Keith Mars walked alongside his daughter, her boyfriend, and the nurse who was pushing her wheelchair. Logan and Veronica were jabbering to each other about something, but he wasn't paying any attention to whatever their conversation was about. He was much too busy running through the ridiculously long list of possible suspects in his head. One thing he had noticed, to his relief, was that she didn't seem too psychologically bothered by the ordeal. The last few years of her life had made her resilient…among other things. He wondered if this happening to her now was his fault by letting her do detective work or maybe from him doing it. A lot of enemies are made in his type of work. He knew it was having a large affect on how she was becoming as a person. But it was getting all too clear to him that the older she got, the more abnormal things she went through. She had walls that she shouldn't have and enough emotional baggage to require a u-haul to carry around. Yet when he looked down at her she was smiling and chatting with her boyfriend as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Strangely, that worried him more.

"I still don't understand why I have to sit in a wheelchair. I'm fine!" Logan grinned at his cutely annoyed girlfriend. It had been a long and very uncomfortable night sleeping…or trying to sleep in one of those overnight hospital chairs, but somehow, despite everything he was in a good mood. Out of relief, mostly, he figured.

The nurse rolled her eyes, obviously not experiencing any favorite part of her job by pushing the skinny blond patient around. "It's hospital policy."

"Logan, you did call my professors…right? I had a paper due and a midterm that I missed. I really don't want them to get a chance at killing my grades this early on." Logan nodded.

"What about that woman we helped last year?" Keith asked, his mind turning still.

"Which one?"  
"Mrs. Lowery, the one we helped get a new identity to hide form her psychopathic husband. You took pictures of him beating her."

"Isn't she still in prison?"

"No, he got out on parole last week actually."

"What about that dude you got turned in from the welcome wagon?" Logan suggested.

"Nah, he wasn't kidnapper slash possible murderer material. Next?"

They turned around a corner and the nurse wheeled Veronica through a set of staff only doors. "You'll have to wait here." She stated to Logan and Keith.

"But I'm already discharged." The blond stated, more annoyed than confused.

The nurse turned to her father and smiled. "It'll only take a moment." She pushed Veronica through the doors that shut automatically behind her before anyone had time to protest further. She pulled a needle out of her scrub pocket and injected it's continents into Veronica's neck before she could know anything was going on.

Logan and Keith stood waiting for over thirty minutes in front of the door the nurse had taken Veronica through, expecting her to come out any second. But she didn't. Keith went to the nurses' station and asked what was taking so long. They told him they had no idea what he was talking about.

"Veronica was discharged almost an hour ago. We assumed you took her home." The nurse was obviously confused.

Keith didn't waste any time getting back to Logan and running through the doors that nurse had wheeled his daughter through.

"Logan, call 911. They've got her again!"

Logan watched in shocked horror and then quickly snapped out of it to call the police, then followed Mr. Mars through the doors. Unfortunately, they didn't find anything. No one at the hospital had any clue who that apparent fake nurse was nor had they ever seen her before. Mr. Mars stayed around at the hospital, questioning everyone he came across and giving the hospital director a number about the security inefficiency that very well could cost his daughter her life. Logan, on the other hand, decided to go out to the parking lot and ask around to see if anyone had maybe seen the vehicle they were in or whether Veronica was conscious when they came out. If she were she'd have a much better chance at figuring out how to escape on her own again.

When Veronica woke up, quite groggy, she found she was extremely tired and sleepy. She felt like she had been drugged or something…wait…hadn't she already been discharged from the hospital? The hard cement floor felt cold underneath her. This wasn't her apartment…this was a….a basement. The same basement she had been kept in the last time she was kidnapped. _Oh great, I'm back where I started. How many times do I have to get kidnapped in one week? I mean once…sure…I am a detective, which incurs certain risks, but this is just ridiculous. _

She looked up at the vent she had escaped from last time. It was bolted shut by things that looked like they could only be removed by a ratchet. _So that option is out._ _What next?_ She was just standing up when a scary thought ran through her mind. _Last time one of the men thought I was pretty…he wanted to…oh no! Not again! Already been through that particular trauma once and anyone who tries is going down even if I go with him…stop being so quick to panic, Veronica, both those men were arrested. You got out last time you'll get yourself. But whoever had brought me here this time must be pretty stupid to bring me back to the same place…maybe there is hope yet? _She didn't have much more time to think about anything, however, about a quick minute later she heard someone carefully walking down the steep stairs and shortly after saw the nurse that must have drugged and kidnapped her. She was carrying a gun and smiling strangely.

"So are you coming to kill me?" Veronica asked out flatly as she leaned her side up against the cement wall facing the woman.

"No…this is just incase you try to be stupid."

Veronica had no desire to talk to the lady if she was only going to be killed later anyway. "What do you want?"

"Your help…that is, if you want even a chance to live." She sat down on a step and stared into her captive's intrigued expression that adorned her face. "How far along are you?"


	4. two months

"Excuse me?" Veronica was obviously bewildered, which greatly entertained the woman.

"You are two months pregnant."

"What?"

It took about half a second to grow agitated. "Admit it! You are two months pregnant."

Veronica stared at her silently in shocked amazement.

The woman just grinned. "Do you have any idea how dead you are?"

Veronica didn't answer. "Listen, I'm gonna help you. You see, my husband works at Hearst. If it wasn't for me, he'd probably be killing you any minute now."

"So why isn't he?"

"You were nice to my little sister the other day. I want to leave him. He disgusts me. But I can't leave."

"Why not?"

"I found out what he was doing a couple weeks ago. I tried to leave. He warned me not to. The next day, my little sister has all her hair shaved off and says she was raped."

Veronica perked up in her usual crime mystery intrigue. "You think your husband's the rapist?"

"I know he is. I accidentally…walked in on him."

"So why did you kidnap me?"

"Because he was waiting for you to leave that hospital so he could laser point and shoot you. How else was I supposed to keep you alive long enough for you to help me?"

"What's his name?"

"Jeffery Henderson. My name is Kelly. You have to call your dad and tell him who it is. Tell him it's him that kidnapped you…I can't get arrested"

"He won't get you arrested. Just let me tell him the truth, it's the best way for him to get down to the bottom of this situation accurately."

Kelly began shaking her head and squeezed her eyes shut tightly. "No, no no! That's not the plan. I already have this figured out. You have to dad Mr. Mars and tell him he's kidnapped you."

"But if I tell him that he'll be looking for him in the wrong places. Besides, if I tell him that a serial head shaving rapist has me kidnapped, do you really think his focus will be on helping you get away from here with a new identity?" Veronica kept her voice calm and tried to make her reasoning clear.

The woman pointed the gun at her again. "Just do it!" She shoved a cell phone into Veronica's hands. Veronica dialed her dad's number. Keith Mars was, at the time, still outside the hospital talking with Sheriff Lamb who, as usually, insisted to being absolutely no help in addition to a complete jackass. When he heard his phone ring from an unfamiliar number he picked up immediately.

"Daddy?" Relief poured into his body.

"Veronica? Honey are you ok? Where are you?" Keith immediately pressed the button on his phone to record the conversation.

"The Hearst campus rapist's name is Jeffery Henderson. Umm, he's the one you can attribute to my little fieldtrip."

"Is he right there? Honey is your kidnapper listening to you."

"No and yes." She laughed nervously. Kelly gave her a warning look.

"You have to help his wife, Kelly Jefferson. She needs a new identity. She's afraid of him."

"Ok, give the phone to him."

Veronica tried to hand the phone to Kelly, but she refused to take it and her face began to grow mad. "Sorry Jefferson doesn't want to talk to you."

Kelly motioned for veronica to hold her hand over the phone and make her father hold. She complied slowly, but held it as loosely as she dared, hoping her dad could hear whatever she was about to say and that it would give him some kind of clue. "Tell him to go- alone- to this house at ten tonight with my new passport, driver's license, and birth certificate and you'll walk out of here Scott free and unharmed."

Veronica repeated what Kelly told her to her father over the phone, trying carefully to elongate the conversation as a way to ensure that he could trace the call. Kelly didn't seem to pick up on it. Veronica asked if Kelly wanted her to tell him anything else. Kelly shook her head and told her to hang up the phone.

"Veronica, you are ok, aren't you, honey?"

"Yeah, I'm ok, dad, bye." She hung up the phone.

Kelly took it and left the basement. Veronica paced around the room, hoping her dad got the hints she threw at him, for the next five hours. She really had to go to the bathroom. The next time the door opened and someone walked down the stairs she was expecting Kelly but instead got met with a large intimidating looking man…who looked exactly like the man who had been taking pictures of her and Logan a few nights ago. He grinned at her smugly and, grabbing her by the hair half pushed half drug her up the stairs and into a small corridor. After walking through several doors her jerked her into a small bedroom with no windows and slammed the door shut.

Veronica didn't know whether to be terrified or relieved that he didn't follow her in. She searched the room over for a way to get out but this time there was nothing. The bedroom did have a connected bathroom at least though. And there was one other door which she guessed to be a closet. She opened and had to hold back a scream when she saw Kelly fall out of it unto the floor with duck tape over her mouth and her eyes still wide open in panic even though she was dead. Veronica began to back up only to fall onto the foot of the bed.

But that was when she noticed what was hung up all along the walls of the closet. Photos of girls…including her…asleep. Most of them looked like they had either been taken from a window or doorway. Two of them she recognized as rape victims. But there were many others of people she had never seen before. She was completely stunned.

The door suddenly burst open. The man came in. It seemed like his presence filled the entire room to the point that their wasn't any air left. She wanted to scream but didn't allow herself, she knew that the panicked approach would probably be a bad move. She remained where she stood. When he began to talk…or yell, his voice boomed and took up even more space in the room than his body. "You are the girl that's having me investigated!"

_This isn't good._ He stomped over to her and grabbed her, throwing her like a twig onto the middle of the bed. "I'll teach you to mess with me!" He began to climb unto the bed himself and Veronica's entire body filled with complete fear and dread. He pinned her down roughly. Silent tears began rolling from her eyes down her cheeks.

_Admit it! You're two months pregnant!_ She wasn't sure if she had meant it to help her, but she didn't know anything else to do. "Please don't, I'm pregnant. I'm two months pregnant!"

The man's black eyes burned through her, but slowly his grip loosened. "Get the hell out of here! NOW!" Veronica didn't wait for him to change his mind. She ran out of the room faster than she even knew she had the ability to.

She made it to the kitchen when she was grabbed from someone on the other side of the refrigerator. The person tried to cover her mouth with their hand, but only to have Veronica bit into it hard. Their grip loosened. She wiggled out of the person's grasp and turned around to find Logan staring down at her. He grabbed onto her hand and led her out of a different door than the one she almost ran out of. She must have tried the garage door, but he led her out the back. There were police outside. Logan hugged her tightly. The tears wouldn't stop running for some reason, however. She heard the police moving in…and ten not long after saw them carry out at body bag. She felt bad for Kelly. Even if she had kidnapped her, Veronica was convinced that she really did only want to get away from her husband. Obviously she didn't succeed.

That night as she sat on the couch in her apartment with Logan…practically on his lap, she finally decided to get out what she needed to tell him. "Logan, um, can I talk to you about something"

He kissed her forehead affectionately. "Sure, what is it?"

She tried to find the right words. "I-" Her dad walked in the room, immediately shutting her up.

He sat down comfortable on the chair near them. "Well, at least we would have to worry about him ever doing that again"

Veronica rolled her eyes, knowing the legal system too well to be at all comforted. "Yeah, until he gets parole or out in a few years"

This obviously had her dad confused. "Out of what? Honey, they shot him. He's dead. Are you ok"

"Yeah…wait, they didn't arrest him after we left"

Logan chucked oddly. "Oh come on Veronica, didn't you see the body bag"

"Yeah, of the dead woman, Kelly. His wife"

"Uh…what woman? Honey, there was no woman there."

* * *


	5. a long time ago

"Did you bring the passport and other stuff I told you to?'

"Yeah, as a back up…but I didn't have to use them, there still in my car." Keith looked at his daughter as though he feared for her mental health.

"No they're not. Go check now!"

_She wasn't really dead. Oh my God, she lied to me about everything. "My name is Kelly Jefferson… Jeffery Henderson." She screwed up. If she was his wife she would have said her name is Kelly Henderson…not a rendition of her husband's first name. She planned the whole thing thinking that I wouldn't figure it out until she was out of the country. But why tell the lies? The man did seem like he was going to…why did he do that if he wasn't the rapist. What's with all those pictures in the closet? Why did he stop like someone had stabbed him when I said two months pregnant? That wouldn't have stopped most rapists. _

Keith rushed back in the room with confusion taking over her features. "How did you know they wouldn't be there, Veronica?"

She then took the next half hour to explain to them the why everything exactly happened. She felt Logan's entire body tighten at the part of the story where the man almost raped her. Keith immediately got to making several phone calls to try to stop the woman…whoever she really is…from leaving the country and to have her arrested. About an hour later the phone rang from an old friend of Keith's in the sheriff's department to let them know that the man had been positively identified as Jeffery Henderson. It was his house that Veronica had been taken to both times she was kidnapped. He worked as a gardener at Hearst, but couldn't have been the rapist. He was seen by four people working at the time the last rape occurred and was also seen around the time another had happened in a bar downtown by one of the cops that worked in the department.

_Why was that man taking pictures of me and all those other girls if he's not the rapist? Why would he almost do that to me if he wasn't the rapist? _

Logan could almost see the million and a half wheels turning like crazy in Veronica's head. Personally, he couldn't care less who either of them were or what they did as long as they wouldn't be hurting Veronica again. But he knew that wasn't how his girlfriend's mind worked, on the other hand. She had to solve the mystery completely. But not tonight. Tonight they were both way too tired and Veronica still way to beaten up. She hadn't had hardly any rest in two days. He nudged her in an attempted to snap her out of her own head for a moment.

"You should sleep."

"Actually I'm kind of hungry. I kind of missed lunch and dinner the last couple days."

Her dad jumped up, feeling guilty that it hadn't crossed his mind already. "I'll go get some take out. You want Mexican or Italian?"

"Either." She couldn't care less what she ate…right now she could eat an entire cow.

Mr. Mars smiled and left, entrusting his daughter in Logan's care until he came back and making that clear to Logan with the look he shot at him.

Veronica thought about discussing something important with him for a moment, but then thought better of it. She would rather want until Logan had more time to think about what it was that she was going to tell him. So instead she only kissed him for a while and let him kiss her back. It didn't go any farther than that, her father could walk back in at any minute. But they enjoyed each other none the less.

"You know, you really need to stop getting yourself kidnapped like that Veronica. I think your dad almost had a heart attack and I haven't been so terrified since that night Cassidy almost shot you on the roof."

"I'll try to keep that in mind next time I consider having myself kidnapped." She joked.

But Logan wasn't in a joking mood. "Seriously Veronica. You scared me. I don't know what I'd do if something really happened to you one day. You're the most important person in the world to me."

Veronica smiled sweetly and hugged him tightly. "I love you too, Logan." She whispered into his ear.

He tried to stay mad, but couldn't bring himself to do so. "I do love you." He let out a deep breath and sighed. "Just try to be more careful."

"I will." They started up kissing again just as her dad walked in and cleared his throat loudly in an attempt to make it stop. They quickly did so and Veronica got out of Logan's lap and sat next to him instead.

"I got your favorite. He pulled the Mexican food out of the bag and sat it on the coffee table. Logan reached to get his share but as soon as Veronica smelled it she slapped her hand to her mouth and ran to the bathroom, nauseous from the smell. She was still a little green tinted in the face when she came back and decided against eating anything after all. It worried Keith and Logan, but they figured it was from her nerves or the fact that she had not been taken very good care of lately physically. She laid down on the couch as they wolfed down their late dinners.

Keith surprised everyone by actually asking Logan to stay over that night…on the couch of course. Just as an extra means of protection for Veronica. Logan eagerly complied. As tired as Veronica was that night, she didn't get any sleep, just like the other two people in the house. They didn't for fear something would, again, happen to Veronica and Veronica for all the million thoughts running through her head. About the kidnapper and the strangeness of the case, about Logan and her, about the thing she had to tell Logan, about the craziness of her life in general. There was no way she would shut her eyes once that night…nope…she wouldn't fall asleep, she wouldn't let herself….

_She was in the freezer again, crying, screaming. Logan was outside. She knew he was…but he couldn't get her out. He was trying. Aaron had shot her dad. He was dead. Smoke leaked into the freezer somehow until she couldn't breathe. Cassidy's voice kept chanting over and over again "You're alone. You'll always be alone. It's your fault. Their all dead, you know. You're dead too, now." Veronica looked down at her own body and suddenly she wasn't in the freezer anymore, she was back at Shelly Pomeroy's party. Cassidy had her held down, but now she was awake. Logan walked in and his face was full of anger…at her. He slammed the door shut and left and didn't help her. She saw the plane blow up but this time her dad was in it. She somehow saw the plane very well with her dad's fingers frantically scratching against the glass as the plane blew up. Cassidy turned into Aaron and he smiled at her evilly as he bashed Lilly's head in. _She felt hands on her and tried to jerk away, panicked.

"Veronica, Veronica. Wake up." Her whole body jumped up into a sitting position and was immediately taken into a warm pair of arms. It was Logan. He was holding her now.

"Are you ok?" He whispered into her ear.

She nodded.

It was too dark to see his face. "Was it about today?"

"No. Just about some things that happened a long time ago. I'm fine. Thank you."

He held onto her for another moment and then began to leave. But she caught his hand and stopped him. "Stay in here with me for a while?" She lifted her comforter as a gesture for him to climb in with her. He did and took hold of her tightly, as if he were afraid of something. He didn't fall asleep and it took her over an hour to again. He stayed in her bed with her until it got light outside and he began to fear her dad waking up soon and getting angry at them. Then he quietly went back to his place on the couch.


	6. somewhere in texas

_Why two months? _Veronica's thoughts circulated through her head endlessly. _It's like she was trying to warn me. Why bother if she had already gotten what she wanted? _The woman had been identified through police mug shots as Larette Davis. She had gone missing in nineteen ninety three as reported by her mother who lived in Texas. Veronica had never even heard the name before. They hadn't been able to find the woman yet, which wasn't a good sign, the longer it took the less chance they had to find her. Jeffery Henderson had been a gardener at Hearst, who apparently had been arrested several times for stalking, but had never done anything to the ones he stalked except take pictures and one time he broke in a girl's dorm and stole her underwear. He would have been a easy target to frame for the Hearst rapes…so there's no question to why the woman chose him. But why go through me? Why was she so desperate. _Admit it! You're two months pregnant. _Larette's voice played over and over in her head. It was like a broken record, but Veronica couldn't seem to get rid of it.

She had slept until late that morning and had been at Logan's most of the afternoon. Logan was still a bit jumpy. He hadn't left her all day and when he did finally have to go to class he asked Dick to come over. Logan had said it was just because Dick wanted to borrow some video games but Veronica knew better. And she wasn't happy about it. So what if she had a habit of getting kidnapped…she always managed to get out…she could take care of herself. Besides, she'd almost rather get kidnapped again than have to be babysat by Dick. Almost anything…no defiantly anything would be better than that.

"Hey Ronnie." He walked in, doing that annoying head nodding thing again and sat next to her. "Looks like we're gonna be hangin' out for a while." He plopped down on the couch next to Veronica as Logan came back out of his bedroom.

"Oh, hey man." He leaned down near Dick. "Thanks for coming."

"No problem, no problem. Wouldn't want Veronica here to get herself hurt in your absence." Logan's mouth and eyes snapped shut for a moment at Dick's bad choice of words and timing. He knew Veronica knew what Dick was really there for, and she would probably be raging mad him later, but what Dick was saying didn't help the matter any.

Veronica jumped up and all but ran to Logan, giving him a look at could make someone fall over dead if he wasn't careful. But he wasn't going to argue, he smiled somewhat over exuberantly at Veronica instead, and kissed her on the forehead which he knew would only make her more angry before he left. When she sat down next to Dick, who was playing video games however, she almost got sick again from Dick's cologne. _Did he use the whole bottle? _

She was tired, so she used the excuse to just go take a nap in Logan's room. Dick didn't pay too much attention. She went to his room for a bit, and when she was sure that he was too absorbed into his video games to notice, she quietly slipped out of the apartment in hopes of finding some answers. None came. She felt for some reason that she should start in the house she had, after a bit of digging, found was registered in the lady's name. No one was there. She could tell that the house didn't have and alarm system, so she used her talents to pick the lock to the back porch door. It opened without too much difficulty on her part and she walked in. Of course, all the lights were off and curtain were drawn, so she had a hard time looking around as she didn't want to risk turning any lights on.

It wasn't a big house, only a one bedroom flat. Everything seemed to look normal. Veronica found a picture of Larette with another man, whom looked vaguely familiar to her but she couldn't remember who he was or where she knew him from. The woman looked different and much younger in the photo, and she had long curly brown hair instead of short straight blond. She got her camera out from her messenger bag and took a picture if it before removing it from it's frame to see if anything was written on the back.

_June 14th, 1993 _was written in a messy cursive.

She went into the only bedroom and searched through the closet to find it mostly empty, as if she had packed most of her clothes and taken them with her. She noticed a pull down trap door in the ceiling. She decided to try it, and pulled down the stairs. She climbed them into a small dusty average looking attic, mostly filled with extra furniture and Christmas decorations. Disappointed, she was just about to leave when the trap door slammed shut behind her, causing her to jump about two feet in the air and almost hit her head on the ceiling. She turned around to see Larette crouched down on the other side of the door, where she must have been hiding behind a stack of chairs. Her eyes were bloodshot as if she hadn't gotten any sleep and the look she gave Veronica made her afraid.

"I didn't hurt you, I even gave you any insurance policy to make sure Jeffery didn't hurt you. But you had to turn me in anyway. And as if that wasn't enough, now you break into my home too? You must have a death wish you stupid little girl!"

"Why didn't you just tell me your husband hit you? Why go through Henderson?"

She stared at Veronica, as though surprised at something. "I'm not going to trust some teenage girl with my life. Besides, back when I was about your age I was dating Jeffrey. I got pregnant and two months into it he hit me and I lost the baby. I wanted to get back at him."

"So you pretended to be his girlfriend again."

"Yes, he worked at Hearst and, after being around the campus a few times I heard of you." She seemed defeated. "If my husband finds me here…"

"I'll help you get away if you tell me one thing…how did you?"

The woman smiled and cut her off. "I know a lot of things." They climbed down the stairs from the attic. Within two hours, Veronica had arranged for the woman to safely leave Neptune and she was gone.

Somewhere in Texas: a young girl, about twelve, with brown curly hair walked through the familiar graveyard with her grandmother. It was a normal routine for them to do every Thursday after she got out of school stretching back as far as she could remember. They stopped at the nicely taken care of granite headstone that read:

_Allen Davis_

_1963-1993_

_Beloved husband_


	7. the chapter where she tells him

_Author's note: There was a mistake last chapter in the 1st paragraph corncerning the dates the woman went missing and who reported it, it's fixed now, so if anyone was confused for that I encourage you to re-read it. Sorry! Also, this chapter is just a bit more borderline with it's rating, hopefully it won't bother anyone...nothing really bad, but I figured I'd give a warning just in case. _

Veronica was so satisfied when she came back to Logan's apartment that she didn't even care that he was angry at her for sneaking off and almost causing him to call her dad and the police. Her head was finally clear and now she could focus on her personal life.

She sat down with Logan on the couch in his lap, debating exactly what would be the best way to tell him. She decided that perhaps it would be wise to insure his really, really good mood first. So, surprising him, she began a impromptu make out session, much to his enjoyment. But it back fired and he got a little too excited for conversation. He tried to lead her to his bedroom but she remained in her place.

"Why not?" Logan asked, still trying to catch his breath.

"I'm tiered." She lied, knowing it was weak, but it was the first thing that came to mind.

"Yeah, well, I'll make it easy for you then." Logan's voice clearly gave away that he knew that wasn't her real reason. He lifted her and carried her over his shoulder to the bed.

She tried to get his name out, but all that came were gasps. "Please, don't." She wasn't sure if he even heard or understood her until he replied.

"You tell me what's going on and I'll stop." He kept kissing her neck, knowing as well as she did that she didn't have it in her to lie to him again. His hands slid underneath her tight fitting brown t-shirt.

"Logan…"

"I love you Veronica." He kissed her on the mouth again and this time she couldn't not respond.

"Logan…"

He moved down to kissing her collarbone.

"Logan….stop!" She finally got it out, suddenly, and louder than she had intended.

He immediately stopped and looked back up at her eyes. His hand flew to the side of her face and he came back up so that his face was directly above hers. "What-what is it? Are you ok?" His tone was very worried and almost even sounded afraid. She felt guilty.

"Yeah…no…yeah-I- I have to tell you something." His face flooded with dread and more worry.

"What is it?"

"I- I'm um…pregnant." The room filled with silence and his entire body flinched at the word.

"But we were careful."

"Yeah, I guess that didn't matter." She was terrified at what he would do, at what his reaction would be. _Shock…check. Partial disbelief, check._

"How long?"

"About six weeks, I think." His face played out a rainbow of emotions.

"Oh, God." _More shock…check. Ok, here comes the anger…_

He stared down at her for a moment and then kissed her as if it were the last thing he'd ever do. She was shocked now. _What was he-_

"I love you, Veronica. I know I've done some shitty things to you in the past, but I'm gonna do right by you this time."

What was he talked about? She thought that he would be furious, but instead he was _still _kissing her and telling her how much he loves her? _What in the-_

Her thoughts were interrupted when he kissed her again, lightly this time. Short and sweet and totally not his usual style. But she liked it.

She somehow managed a grin. He slowly nodded, realization coming into his mind. "It's ok." He reached over and grabbed the phone, dialing.

"What are you doing?" She asked simply.

"Calling a doctor."

She gently put her hand over his and stopped him. "Logan, no doctor's going to be open this time of day."

He put the phone down and flipped on top of her again, kissing her neck. She thought he was crazy. "What are you doing?"

"I'll call first thing in the morning. Until then, I see no reason that we can't enjoy the rest of our night." He said this like nothing was wrong and everything was completely normal.

"Logan! Didn't you hear what I just told you?" He continued kissing her neck and then went back to her mouth again and reached around with one hand to her back.

"Yeah, I heard you Veronica. You're pregnant. We're gonna have a baby together and I want you to be my wife, but I think I could do a much better job at proposing later… so if you don't mind-"

When it was over, Veronica waited until she thought he was asleep and carefully began to sit up on to edge of the bed to leave. A hand from behind her quickly caught her wrist.

"Don't run, Veronica." He gently pulled her back into bed with him and snuggled up close to her, holding her like as if to prevent her from trying to run away. "From now on it isn't just you that's running away, you've got my baby in there too, so I think I'm entitled to stop you now."

She physically couldn't get out of his hold to run, so she hid under her sarcasm instead. "Well, frack, I guess I'm stuck with you now."

"Is that a problem?" He asked, walking the line between joking and being completely serious.

She squirmed until he loosened his grip enough for her to turn around and face him. She kissed him shortly. "No." She kissed him again on the cheek, but he guided her with his hand under her chin back to his mouth and began kissing her quite seriously. She broke away first. "Doesn't this scare you Logan?"

He stayed silent for a while. "Yeah." He admitted. "But it's not like I'm just playing to give you back at the end of the game, Veronica, you're my keeper. I never would have given you back anyways."

Much later on that night she got an unexpected call from her father.

"Hey dad, what's up?"

"Guess what I just dug up? Larette Davis not only disappeared in nineteen ninety three, but it was also on the same day that her husband was later found dead in their house. I talked to her mother, she's only heard from her one time since she disappeared- when she left her baby on her mother's doorstep, literally, without even a note. The girl is still living with her grandmother and Larette's the prime suspect of her husband's murder." Veronica was in shocked silence. _Oh God._

"So, did your old man do good or what?"

She tried to snap herself out of it. "Yeah, dad, that's great. Listen I'll talk to you tomorrow, ok?" She hung up the phone.

"What was that about?" Logan asked only semi-interested.

She quickly turned around to face him with fear written all over her face. "I think I just made a horrible mistake."


	8. roadtrip

Veronica paced back and forth across Logan's living room. She had been ready to go to the doctor's ten minutes ago but Logan, apparently, still wasn't ready.

_Ok, so… yeah you can do this, you can do this. You can be a father. Now, at least you'll always have her as a part of your life. Oh God, I can't do this, I'm not ready for this. I'm in college… we're both in college. Veronica's a pretty petite girl… what if something goes wrong? What if something happens and I lose her? That CAN'T happen. Come on, Logan, stop being such a wuss. She'll be fine, she's Veronica… I don't think anything could kill her. I need a drink. No, that's bad. What about the chlamydia? Wait... what if I end up like my father? What if I hurt the kid? I wonder if it's a girl or boy. Is the world even ready for a miniature Veronica or me running around? I have my hands full keeping Veronica out of trouble and I know she has just as hard a time with me… how are we gonna manage to take care of a baby, too? Ok, look tough, Logan! You're okay. Just take care of Veronica and it'll be okay. _

He stood up and walked Veronica to his huge yellow SUV. They had spent most of the morning in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Veronica's about Logan's reaction and Larette Davis. Logan's about Veronica and the baby.

They waited in the waiting room forever before a nurse brought them to a room. The doctor came in, did an examination and an ultrasound, and told them the ironic news that Veronica was actually eight weeks pregnant... or two months. They were there forever. She had her height and weight measured, blood tests done, filled out the little she knew about her family history, had a very thorough physical, and finally, since she was so far along, the doctor checked the baby's heart beat.

The doctor had a thick Indian accent which made Logan chuckle inappropriately. "Everything seems to be fine so far, Ms. Mars, despite your history with chlamydia. But you are coming in a bit late for your first check up," he scolded.

"I know. I wasn't really sure until about two weeks ago and the day that I had an appointment scheduled I was a bit… tied up," Veronica replied evasively.

"Okay then. Well, for now just remember to take the vitamins I gave you and you'll be good to go. But I want to see you back here in two weeks," he called after her as she was already going out the door with Logan trailing behind her.

They got to Logan's car and on the passenger seat lay an envelope with Veronica's name on it. She wasn't sure what it was. But she knew that Logan already had enough on his mind, so she stuffed it in her bag to look at later. "Feel like going on a road trip?" she asked.

Logan suddenly felt and looked terrified. "Why?"

She just smiled smiled.

Six Hours Later

They had been in Logan's car driving for the past four hours and neither one of them had said a word yet. Finally Logan couldn't take it any longer.

"When are we gonna tell your dad?"  
"Excuse me… we?"

"Yes we, it's sounds kind of like the French word for yes..."

"WE are not telling him anything. In fact, I don't think it's a good idea for you to even be within a fifty mile radius when I do."

Logan pressed his lips together in a tight grin. "He's going to shoot me, isn't he?"

"Like the dog that you are. Don't worry, I'll hide his gun first." She was only joking, and Logan knew it, but anyone in his position would have been completely unable to laugh at that point.

"Do you seriously want to tell him alone?"

"Logan, I know my dad, it'll just be better this way. How much longer?"

"Veronica, it takes twenty eight hours to get to Houston so trust me, it'll be a while." He let out a huffy breath. "I still don't see why we couldn't fly."

"Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Well, there's always the mile high club."

"Logan!"

They didn't stop except for food and gas until that night, almost making it through Arizona. Logan went to the reception desk to ask for a key to the mini bar while Veronica plopped down on the bed. She waited until he was gone to open the envelope. Her eyes became so wide they almost popped out of her head when she saw what was in it. Horrified, she could only stare. When she heard Logan come back into the room she scrambled to get everything back in the envelope and hid it under the nightstand.

"I remembered you couldn't drink, so I brought you some orange juice."

He handed it to her and she put it down on the night stand saying a much too quick "thanks" and then scurrying off the bed.

"Iforgotsomethinginthecar." She scrambled out of the room so fast she almost tripped over herself as she ran down the dark stairwell, clutching onto the rails to help keep her balance. She didn't want to fall on her belly and hurt the baby… if that could even happen yet…she didn't know. _Oh heck I'm going to have get a book on this, aren't I? _She reached the back parking lot.

A man dressed in all black stood looking through his target finder on his gun at a young blonde girl wandering through the parking lot. He was hidden behind a car and remained in his position. So this was the girl that had screwed him over in finding Larette. He looked back up at the window that she and the guy he was assuming to be a boyfriend had taken for the night. The boy held up a TV remote and then began hitting it against his other hand as if trying to get it to work. He wondered which would hurt the girl more, shooting her or her boyfriend… or both.


	9. personal

He pointed the gun, deciding the first shot should come just at her stomach where she was sure to feel it plenty before she bled to death. She was jingling her keys around her finger, not expecting a thing. He fired. At first, her face only showed surprise and confusion…her hand felt the place where the bullet went in just below the stomach and came back dripping with sticky crimson blood. Then the fear and pain began to register and show through her expressional face. She didn't move, but only stood there, still somewhat in shock for almost a minute before her small body collapse to the ground. A pool of blood formed around her. He looked up to his second target who, conveniently enough for his purposes, was standing right at the window. He took aim for the second time that night.

* * *

Something, although he had no idea at what, kept yelling in Logan's head, urging him to go and check on Veronica.

_She is just getting something out of the car. No big deal, she'll be back any a minute. You already had Dick babysit her, do you really want to make her think that you're having her watched again? She's been gone for fifteen minutes. Shouldn't she be back by now? I wonder if I could see her from the window. _

A silent shot was fired from outside just as Logan reached the window. He saw a blonde girl near the center of the parking lot fall to the pavement. _Oh God, Veronica! _He turned to make for the parking lot when he felt a painful surge graze against his shoulder. He ignored the pain and dialed 911 as he ran to the elevator.

_5th floor… 4th floor… 3rd floor… This is taking forever!_

Suddenly, the lights went out and the elevator stopped. Logan tried to pry the doors open but they wouldn't budge. The world could not have picked a worse time for this to happen. Someone finally picked up at the 911 dispatch.

"911. What is your emergency?"

"My girl's been shot!"

"Sir, I need you to calm down. What is your location?"

Logan quickly told them the name of the hotel and where she was in the parking lot. "Please, hurry! She's pregnant!"

A maintenance worker showed up on the other side of the elevator door soon after Logan had hung up with 911. "Sorry about the inconvenience, I'll have everyone out in a minute."

A minute turned into ten and Logan grew even more terrified. He heard sirens come. Finally, the doors sprang open and he ran right past the worker through the hall, down the stairs, and outside into the parking lot in the direction that he had watched the girl he loved get shot and crumple to the pavement. He was just barely too late. The ambulance was driving away with its sirens blaring, but there were a few bystanders still around.

"Did you see anything?" Logan asked a man frantically.

"Yeah, a blonde girl. Got shot pretty bad right below the stomach, it looked like. Poor thing, she was bleeding like crazy. Hope she lives."

Logan turned and sprinted toward his car.

_Veronica came out of the motel room after talking to the FBI agent that he didn't trust at all. Logan had pounded him just five minutes before because he thought he had kidnapped her and had seen him dragging her into a motel room. _

_Veronica smiled shyly at him. _

"_Are you okay?" he asked._

_She stared at the floor and then back at him. "Uh huh." _

_He thought she was going to leave… she was acting funny. But instead, she suddenly just kissed him. When she started to walk away he pulled her arm to get her to turn around and had the best two-and-a-half-minute first kiss of his life. He wrapped his arms around her waist and lower back and felt her hands at his shoulders and neck. He had to lean down some, he remembered, because she was still short even though she was standing on her tip toes. He didn't want it to stop, but it did, and way too soon. _

_She walked away, looking back at him every chance she got. He wanted her to come back. He was unbelievably confused, but he wanted her to stay with him. He wanted to keep her. He watched her drive away. _

Ten Minutes Earlier

_I knew it!_ Veronica pulled a small tracking device from underneath the car below the passenger door. _I'm being followed. _She heard sirens approach and went to see what was going on. There was a blonde girl that looked to be around fifteen years old laying in the middle of the parking lot on blood covered pavement. The EMTs began to work on her. It didn't take much for Veronica to put together that that girl was mistaken for her. She felt guilty, but made sure to keep herself out of sight. She wanted to make sure the shooter didn't find out that he had gotten the wrong girl and that the one he really wanted dead was standing right there in the parking lot.

She walked back to Logan's car and heard him scream out her name. She came out from the other side of the car to see him. He didn't even notice her but kept rushing to open the driver's door. She grabbed his arm and pulled him around to face her.

"Logan?"

His whole body froze as soon as he heard her voice, half believing that he was just imagining the sound. But as soon as she pulled him around, he knew.

"Thank God!" His first reaction was to just gather her to him and hug her so close it almost hurt.

"Logan? Logan! Need… air." Veronica got out in her half-sarcastic, half-serious voice. He loosened his grip but only used the space to smoother her again with kisses instead of letting her have any air. She didn't mind. _There are certain things he has a lot of talent in and the whole kissing thing… definitely one of them._

Finally, they broke apart.

"We should get our things and get out of here. I found a tracker under your car."

He nodded, trying to get an understanding of what was going on. They quickly got back inside the hotel room and grabbed their things. Veronica secured the tracking device beneath a tour bus headed for Minnesota before they got back into Logan's Xterra and headed for Texas. About fifteen minutes into the car ride, Veronica noticed Logan's bleeding shoulder. She had seen the broken window in their room and it wasn't hard to put two and two together. They stopped at a drug store so she could get some antiseptic and a bandage.

They drove for another two hours to ensure that they were far enough away from the shooter, but Veronica still wished that Logan didn't have such a recognizable car just in case.

When they got into their new hotel room, she sat on the top of the bathroom counter as she cleaned the graze. He kept silent though she knew it must hurt. Somehow the familiarity of their positions came back to both of them from junior year. Making out in the girls' bathroom. Of course, back then, neither one of them could have possibly guessed that they would have ended up here for it.

"So, you want to tell me why I spent ten minutes stuck in an elevator thinking my girlfriend was dying?" Logan asked.

She looked down at the floor and then hopped down and pulled out the envelope, handing it over to him. He opened it up and flipped through several pictures. They depicted the man Veronica had seen in the picture dated from 1993 in Larette's house. She had assumed him to be Larette's husband. The pictures were quite graphic and the man was obviously dead.

The accompanying note said that it wasn't smart to tick him off and that _"…you are gonna get it worse than him. I'll see to that, you little bitch_." Of course, it wasn't signed.

"Veronica, don't you think we should just leave it alone? You could have gotten killed tonight. Why is this so important?"

"I'm not leaving it alone, Logan. Whoever shot that girl, he thought it was me. It's completely personal now and I must see to it that he is destroyed."

"Doesn't it bother you at all that you're pregnant and you're putting our baby's life in danger?" By now, Logan's voice had risen very close to a yell.

There was a pause and uncomfortable silence hung between them for a long time.

"I know," she whispered under her breath. Something in his words had obviously gotten to her and she bowed her head, ashamed. "I'll go home now."

Logan felt guilty. "Hey," he reached out for her but she backed away. They didn't speak to each other again that night and the next morning, he took her home in silence.


	10. I know what happened

"Logan, I'm going to ask you something, and I want you to tell me the truth." She looked over at him from the passenger seat, demanding at least a flicker of eye contact. Logan waited.

"Do you think I'm selfish?"

He shook his head to indicate the negative. "A little over-driven sometimes, yes. But selfish? No. I just worry about you," Logan knew her mind was still consumed with the strange case, but he also knew that she wouldn't talk about it again.

"I know. I don't mean too, I just don't know how to… I'm so used to having to fight for everything and everyone. They need to know! But that's all over now, isn't it? With the baby-" she trailed off.

"What are you saying? You don't want it?" Logan asked, growing fearful.

"No, it's not that. It's just that I don't want to abandon her like my mom did me. I'm scared to turn out like my mother. But I don't want my life to stop either."

There it was. She was afraid of the same thing that Logan was: turning into their parents. Abuse and abandonment.

_Wow, we were going to just make great parents! Except, something in me just knows as complete fact that Veronica would never become a drunk or walk out like her mother did. And I would rather kill myself than lay a hand on our child. It would be like hitting Veronica. I could never do that. _

Logan began to feel better about the whole situation for the first time since she had told him she was pregnant. He looked over to find her staring out the window. He knew she didn't want to go home. She wanted to keep chasing answers with everything she had. But she didn't. Instead she was putting the safety of their baby and his request first. In a way, it made him love her even more for it, but in another way, it broke his heart.

"You're not going to turn out like her, Veronica," Logan answered, "You're too good of a person. And how do you know it's a girl?"

She grinned to herself and turned her head as if somehow surprised, though she must have been expecting him to tell her that he didn't think she would out like Lianne. If he did, he wouldn't have been okay with having a baby together. Veronica would be an unbelievable mom, that he had absolutely no doubts about. Logan decided to take advantage of their time together on the ride home to try to figure out what they wanted to do exactly with the situation in a few months. Somehow, he didn't envision Veronica being pregnant in a wedding dress. But he also didn't see her as an unwed mother. She was too classy for that.

"I want you to move in with me, you know."

She surprised him with her quick answer, "I know." She didn't even move to look at him.

"Before the baby comes. Soon. I want us to have some time together first. I can get a bigger apartment if you want. Hell, I can buy a house if you want. Just tell me what would make you happy."

Finally, she turned around and put her hand on his leg. "I need to talk to my dad."

"I want to be there."

"Logan!" She shook her head. But he wasn't going to give in on this one. She saw it written across his face and gave up. "Fine, but let me do all the talking."

Logan agreed.

Late that night, they arrived back in Neptune and headed directly for Veronica's apartment to have the big talk with Keith.

"_WHAT!?!?!_" Keith bellowed at the news, "Please tell me you're joking before I have a heart attack."

"I could, but I'd be lying. I'm sorry, daddy."

"Great. This is just great. You, my only daughter, are going to college pregnant and then you'll have to drop out when the baby comes! How do you plan on raising this baby? How could you be so stupid and irresponsible?" He turned his head to Logan. "And you, you… I'm going to kill you! You impregnated my daughter? I was even started to think of you as somewhat less of a jerk. How am I ever supposed to trust either of you? Do you think you're ready for this? You're teenagers! How are you going raise a baby?"

"Like it or not, we're going to have to be ready for this. At least we stuck by each other!" Veronica came back.

He ignored the comment. "You know, I can't believe this. I never thought that you'd do this, Veronica. I always thought you were smarter than that. More responsible than that! How far along are you?"

"Eight weeks."

"Oh, so you've been keeping it from me? Great!"

Logan sat, staring silently. At this point, he felt anything he said would only make it worse.

"Are you going to even help with this baby?" Keith tossed at Logan.

"Of course! He responded immediately, "I want to raise our child together. I want to marry her!"

Keith obviously didn't like Logan's answer at all. "Did you two do this on purpose?"

"No!" They both answered quickly and in unison.

He seemed to calm down for a minute, leaning back into his chair and letting out a big breath. But just when Veronica began to hope for the best, Keith stood up and began walking out of the room."  
"Where are you going?" Veronica asked fearfully.

"To get my gun!" He stomped off as Logan and Veronica remained in their seats beside each other and exchanged glances.

That night, as Veronica slept in her room she found her nightmares to take a new twist.

_She was pregnant, hugely pregnant. The woman she had wrongfully helped laughed as a man walked up to Aaron and shook his hand. She was in the burning freezer again._

"_How could you be so stupid?" her father yelled at her from outside. _

_Smoke came through the lid, she couldn't breathe. _

_Logan was walking around in a hallway holding a tiny baby in a yellow blanket with both hands, staring into the baby's face and absolutely beaming. _

_Veronica was running as fast as she could down an empty road. Aaron grabbed her from behind a tree and handed her an envelope filled with pictures of Larette Davis' corpse. He pointed to Veronica's hugely pregnant abdomen, snickering. _

_Then, Logan was there, running in between them, forcing her to back up behind him. A shot rang out. The pictures became a flip book and they showed the man from the real pictures laying down in a pool of his own blood. He got up and peeled off the fake wounds and pointed a gun at Larette, who was now also pregnant. Larette placed her baby at a doorstep and ran away. _

_Logan watched her, crying. The baby grew into a girl with dark curly hair. Larette was running down the street while the little girl chased after her screaming and crying for her mommy to come back. A loud shot rang out. Larette fell to the street dead. Veronica looked down to see her large belly bleeding from a bullet hole. _

She bolted out of bed, breathless. "Oh my God, I know what happened. I know what happened!" Suddenly, she began to feel dizzy and she realized that her head was pounding. When she put her hand up to her forehead to try to ease the pain she also realized that her head felt really hot, as did the rest of her body. Her legs quaked beneath her as if in mutiny.

She called out weakly, "Daddy!" before her knees gave beneath her.


	11. not every girl's fairytale

Bright, almost blinding light. Slurred voices of people she couldn't recognize. Then nothing. Nothing, nothing, and nothing until the dreams came.

"_Hey. Wait, what are you doing here?" _

"_Meg?" Veronica asked._

"_I want to thank you for what you did. For my baby, for Duncan. But look, you shouldn't be here yet," Meg replied._

"_What is this?" Veronica looked down around only to see... nothing. _

"_You have to go back." Meg pointed in the direction that Veronica had her back to. Veronica turned in that direction to see. When she turned back around, Meg was gone. She turned back around again to the direction Meg had pointed. Lilly was there. _

"_Hey Veronica!" _

_Veronica only stared at her, confused. _

"_What? You think I wouldn't visit you while you're here? You have seriously done well for yourself, girl! Now get back down there with your crazy self! And tell Logan I said hey!" She playfully slapped Veronica on the hide. Veronica smiled at her and walked away. _

She heard an annoyingly insistent beeping and slowly blinked open her eyes. She immediately noticed the hospital bed that she lay in and felt nauseous. She was almost too tired to move. She felt a hand moving the hair away from her face. He must have noticed that she had woken up, because she felt his hand tremble.

"Ronnie?" She managed to slowly turn her head over to face him. His big beautiful eyes stared at her as if in amazement. His lips were slightly parted.

She realized that he was holding her hand. She had no clue what was going on, but she knew she didn't feel good. But Logan looked so worried she mustered a weak smile to assure him. Her dad walked in holding two cups of coffee and nearly dropped both of them when he saw that she was awake and hurried over to Veronica's very uncomfortable bed.

"Honey?" He bent down to see her as he sat down. He reached across her bed to hand Logan his coffee, but as Logan took it, the hot liquid spilled all over Veronica's arm.

Logan jumped up. "I'll go get something to clean that up." He exited the room in search of a cloth.

"How are you feeling?" Keith asked. He was still furious with her, but seeing his little girl in a hospital bed after he had found her on the bedroom floor, unconscious made it pretty hard for him to keep up the cold shoulder act with her. He just wanted his baby girl back.

"I know what happened."

"That's good, because the doctors around here sure aren't telling me if they do."

"About Larette. I know what happened."

At that point, he was surprised that she could get straight to business with all that had happened to her. "I don't think you should be worrying about that right now. You need to rest."

"Dad, is the baby okay?"

"Yes-"

She cut him off. "Did I wake up?"

"Yeah, but-"

And she cut in off yet again. "Then please do what I need you to do so that I can rest."

He huffed in and out a big breath. She knew she had him. "Okay, what do you know?"

"To begin with, Larette's was having an affair with another man before her husband died. I need you to find out why. I have a theory about the rest of it but I need to why she cheated to confirm my suspicion."

"Okay, I'll see what I can dig up."

Logan came back in with a couple paper towels. He went straight over to clean up the mess and wipe all the remaining brown liquid from Veronica's arm. Keith leaned down and kissed his daughter's forehead before getting up to leave. "I'll be back in a little while."

Logan sat back down. "So, are you going to marry me when they let you out of here?"

Her still somewhat glazed eyes opened wide in shock. "What? Are you proposing to me?"

He squeezed her hand and leaned over to kiss her despite her terrible breath. "Maybe. I know it's not the right time or place, but at this point I just figured I better go ahead and ask before one of these brushes with death of yours brush a little too closely and I never get the chance to at all."

Her mouth gaped somewhat and she honestly didn't know what to say. Of course she would marry him, that wasn't much of a question. She attributed it to the whole epic speech. Like it or not they loved each other and were stuck together until one of them flopped over and died. The way things had been going lately, she couldn't blame Logan for thinking it would be her to flop first. But still, it's not like that was the wonderfully planned out romantic, down-on-one-knee proposal that every little girl dreams about either.

"What? No getting down on one knee, professing your undying love to me in an elaborate speech, and producing a ring with a baseball-sized diamond?" Veronica teased dramatically, before finally looking at him, seriously. "Yes, of course I'll marry you. Just promise me you won't ever kiss me again before I brush my teeth." They both chuckled at the last part and Logan handed her a breath mint before totally disregarding his promise and kissing her anyway for the next several minutes until the doctor came in and interrupted them.

After a few moments of going through her chart, he finally concluded, "Miss Mars, sometimes some women's bodies just don't handle pregnancy as well as others. It's nothing too serious, but I want you on bed rest for at least a week to let your body recover and you'll need to take it easy for the rest of your pregnancy. If you get another fever, however, come straight back in. High fevers like the one you had could endanger the fetus."

"But they're both okay, right?" Logan asked the doctor, obviously concerned.

Veronica laid back in her pillow. She wasn't happy at all. _Bed rest for an entire week? Great. That's just my idea of fun. So how does a girl track down a murderer, an adulteress, and the biological father of Larette's little girl when she's not even allowed to walk further than bathroom and back? Well, the miracles of modern computer technology…and then there's Mac. But that would require me to actually explain all of this to my friends…which I'll have to do sooner or later anyways. _

* * *

Two Days Later

"Man, V, I still can't believe your gonna be a mom."

"Well believe it, uncle Wally."

"Okay, he is _so_ not calling me that."

"Hey, I think I found something." Mac finally stopped messing with Veronica's laptop from the foot of her bed. "The little girl's name is Cora. She was born February 12, 1994 to a Larette and Allen Davis. But Allen Davis died June 19, 1993."

The pieces were adding up just as Veronica expected them too. "So, either she had to conceive right before he died, or the baby wasn't his."


	12. overprotected

Veronica woke up to find a vaguely familiar looking man looking down on her. She was still trying to place him when he smiled evilly and pulled out a gun. He put the barrel to her stomach and covered her mouth with his hand before she could scream. He pulled the trigger.

She jumped awake, thoroughly frightened. She dressed quickly and drove to Logan's apartment.

Logan woke at two in the morning to Veronica standing near the side of his bed. _What in the- _"Veronica? What are you doing here?" he asked, groggily.

She smiled down at him. "Lets go get married."

He looked at her as if she were crazy. "Now?"

"Yes. Right now."

He tossed off the covers and sat up. "Can you give me some kind of reason? This is a little abrupt. Don't you want your dad to be there?"

Things were becoming more and more clear to her. She didn't want to wait to live her life anymore. People like her didn't have that luxury. Anything could happen at any moment and she didn't want to have regrets. In many ways, she felt like she had that day she had made the choice to sleep with Duncan for the first time. "I just want to go do it now."

He thought on it a minute and then grabbed her and pulled her into bed with him. "We should wait until tomorrow."

"Why?"

"Because I want you to wear a pretty white dress and for your dad to be there. We both know you'll regret it later if you don't."

She sighed and cuddled close to him. Tomorrow would have to be soon enough.

Logan could have afforded for Veronica to have whatever kind of wedding that she wanted. But she wouldn't let him. She had called her dad that morning, then Wallace and Mac, and Logan had called Dick. She ran to a local boutique and bought a simple white dress. It may not have been extravagant, but it suited her.

They had a small ceremony with just those few people that afternoon. And there just wasn't much more to it than the exchange of vows. Logan would have arranged for a honeymoon after except they had classes. The only thing to really mark the marriage at all was a videographer and photographer her dad had managed to hire on short notice. But in the middle of repeating her vows, Veronica noticed one thing out of place There was another man that wasn't hired also capturing the occasion on film.

She made an excuse to wander off in the direction of the mysterious photographer after the ceremony. And, she brought her her trusty Taser along. But she didn't find anything.

After the necessary conversations with their small party and a few quick hugs, the newlyweds adjourned to Logan's apartment.

"You know, I've been allowed to walk now for over two weeks," Veronica complained, trying very hard make her slight annoyance sound like she was actually mad.

Logan continued to carry her as if she hadn't said anything. "Yep."

"So… that would mean that you could put me down, you know, and let me walk myself."

"I _could_." He replied, cheekily. He had decided that he wasn't going to let her out of his sight until she had the baby and that was that. Every time he did, she got kidnapped or almost shot or fainted. It was just a lot easier to be a 24/7 pain in the ass than to have to keep chasing after her and praying that she hadn't gotten killed. "But that would kill the valiance of being a gentleman and carrying you across the threshold."

"I think your only supposed to do that if I'm coming in for the first time, Logan," she came back, dryly. They both knew it was only because he was still worried about her and was in crazy overprotective mode which, for the record, she didn't much appreciate. She got enough of that from her dad.

"Yeah, well, maybe I have a surprise for you." He opened the apartment door to reveal… nothing.

She kept looking around in vain until they got to the only bedroom where her finally put her down on the bed. She was now three months pregnant, and for the last one, things had been painfully boring. It didn't help that the darn doctor of hers had declared her a high risk pregnancy so that both her dad and Logan had been hounding her like crazy to just lay around… which was not something she enjoyed in the least. If this was how every pregnancy was going to be, Veronica decided that Logan had better be happy with just one kid.

Logan opened the closet door, but instead of Veronica's surprise, Larette Davis' reeking corpse fell out.

Veronica jumped up, suddenly certain of the identity of the man taking pictures was from earlier and very afraid. "Oh my God!"

"There's a note attached to her neck," Logan announced holding the note up. He turned it over so that he could read it. "Look," was all it said.

The man from earlier, whom Veronica was also fairly certain was responsible for the parking lot incident, had entered the room without either one of them noticing.

When she saw him, Veronica tried to back over to the part of the room where Logan was standing.

"Aww, how sweet. I remember my wedding day you know. Of course I didn't just get married because she was pregnant. I married for love!"  
"What do you want?" Logan asked him nervously, but trying to be brave.

"I want your wife to see what messing with other people's business can do. Before I kill the two of you."

"I know what you did," Veronica asserted.

"You don't know shit."  
"I know that your name is Allen Davis. You beat Larette after the two of you were married. And then when you found out she was having an affair you tried to kill her. But he walked in on it didn't he? That's why you decided to kill him and made it look like it was you that was dead. She ran out while you murdered him. So there was no way she could have known that it wasn't really you in that grave. You left notes, pretending to be him and he told you that she was pregnant with his baby. That's when you snapped. You've been chasing her ever since. The girl over at Hearst is related to Larette. When you saw the story about her rape in the paper you decided to come here to search for her in case she was helping Larette."

"And now she's dead, too. Well isn't that a good little teenage detective." He turned to Logan. "You got yourself a real smart little whore. Too bad she's about to die." They heard a shot.

The man fell over dead and Keith Mars rushed into the room to see if his little girl and new son-in-law were okay.

"Why can't you kids just have a normal wedding night? Go on a cruise or get a hotel room. Why all the drama and the bullets?"

Veronica and Logan grinned at each other and at Keith. After the police came and they got everything cleared up, Logan went back to the closet to pull out what he was going to show her earlier. He handed her a picture of a really big house and several more of the interior.

"I thought it'd be easier if we had more space and if the baby had a nursery. Plus, I can have a game room and you can have one for your detecting and this place actually has an alarm system, which we quite obviously need."

Veronica stared at the pictures. It was no secret that Logan was rich and therefore if she married him she would be too, but she hadn't actually thought about it in those terms up until now. It wasn't something that mattered too much to her, but the fact that her baby would be able to go to any college she wanted, scholarship or not and that they would never have to struggle over money was a pretty nice thought. Plus, Logan was right, they did need the security. She put her hand on her still flat belly and hugged her husband. Somehow she was pretty sure that things were gonna work out pretty good for them.


	13. deja vu

_Author's note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, and especially thanks to my beta for the last six chapters, _StarCrossdSparrow, _who was a huge help._

_Warning: If you don't like time jumps, stop here, otherwise don't complain about it!_

"Mars Investigations." The blond seated at the secretary's desk out in the room in front of Keith Mars' office was writing down notes on a pad as she cradled the phone between her chin and shoulder.

Her mother strolled through the door and asked in a stage whisper, "What've you got going on there?"

The blond held a finger up to her mom indicating that she still needed a moment. She hung up the phone, still jotting information down as she answered, "Nothing much. My boyfriend's mother thinks that her husband is cheating on her. With me." She said that as if just realizing that it meant that she was involved. Then her voice became determined. "Now I get to prove that I'm not. Because, well, eww. I think it's that one blonde cheerleader, Cassidy Williams."

Veronica laughed uneasily, remembering all too well her best friend from when she was her daughter's age who was sleeping with her boyfriend's husband. "Is grandpa around?" Veronica asked, trying to push that familiar face to the back of her mind.

"In his office with a client. I'm trying to get him to let me do the Jackson case stakeout tonight for him."

Veronica grinned, shook her head, and tossed over something she produced from her bag.

"Just remember to take that and Bodyguard with you." The girl caught the Taser and smiled as dog laying at her ankle lifted his head at the sound of his name. Her mother was always pretty understanding of her need to chase after cases. After all, it was quite obvious that it was something that ran in their blood.

Keith finally came out of the office, shaking hands with his client before watching him leave and looking up at Veronica. "Oh, hey honey."

"Hey dad. How's Lilly working out for you?"

"Well, you know, I tell her to do her algebra in between phone calls, she wants to chase after criminals. It's like deja vu."  
Veronica smiled, knowingly. "Well I just came to bring you two some take out. Logan will be by to pick Lilly up later."

"Which daddy wouldn't have to do if you'd give me my car back," Lilly snarked at her mom who only shook her head.

"Lilly, the last one you had, you totaled. You can wait a few weeks before driving your new one. Your father shouldn't be spoiling you with new cars anyways."

"But that wasn't my fault! Kert backed into me on purpose because I told him that I knew what he was doing with Mr. Hendrick's test._ He_ knew the proof was in my laptop and the laptop was in the back of my car, so he plowed into it to cover it up!"

"And what did you do about it?" Veronica asked her to continue, as if to make a point.

"Okay, well, so I sort of changed around his test scores on the school computer. But, he deserved it!"

"What about the car you had before that that ended up in the bay?"

Keith zoned out from listening to them go back and forth. It amazed him to see that his granddaughter had even made it to seventeen with both of her parents blood running through her. When he tuned back in they had stopped arguing.

Veronica handed him the food she had brought and headed for the door. "I have to go. I'm on a case, too. I'll call you later, though, daddy. And Lilly, don't forget about that chemistry test you have tomorrow. You can go on your stake out in your car, but that's it…and take your book with you." she called back as she ran out the door.

Lilly sat back in her office chair and crossed her ankles on top of her desk before turning to Keith and sighed. "No one lets me do anything."

Keith remained silent for a moment, though he couldn't help but contemplate just how scarily similar Lilly was to Veronica. She might have her father's eyes and sometimes recklessness, but her personality had to have came strait from her mother. "Oh, I wonder why."


	14. To be continued

Author's note: I've gotten a lot of requests for a story to fill in the time gap between chaps 12 and 13. For anyone who liked the story or who wants to know what happened in all those years I skipped over for déjà vu I have posted another story called **Between** to fill you in and give new mysteries, check it out if you're interested! Thanks for reading!


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